Breadcrumbs

Why Buy EPPs and Can They Save Money?

We are faced everyday with the reality that many of the products we buy can cause damage to the environment and/or public health. From the extraction of raw materials and the manufacture of products, to their use and disposal, products that we use everyday can be harmful. By purchasing EPPs we look to reduce those impacts, some of which can be severe.

By purchasing EPPs that are:

Made with a percentage of post-consumer recycled content instead of pure virgin products, we reduce the need to extract raw materials, such as petroleum, trees or metals and, in general, use less energy and water.

Manufactured using fewer toxic ingredients, we minimize the hazardous impacts of those products during the manufacturing process (e.g. water / air pollution) as well as reduce the damage caused through accidental spills and improper disposal. We also reduce the risk to workers handling the products and the risks posed to building occupants when the product is in use.

It is important to keep in mind that the purchasing decisions we make affect our local environment and the health of our citizens and workers as well as the global community. As part of the largest procurement group in the nation (representing over 20% of the GNP) federal, state and local governments can use the clout of their buying practices to direct industry manufacturers toward making more responsible products that are reasonably priced and do less harm to the environment and the public health.

Can purchasing EPPs actually save money? Absolutely.

A number of EPPs available in the market today are less expensive than their conventional counterparts that serve the same purpose (e.g. remanufactured toner cartridges and office panels, retread tires, and energy efficient equipment / appliances).

A third segment of EPPs may cost more at the time of purchase, but often have a short "payback period" after which time they represent a significant ongoing cost savings in the maintenance, operation and/or disposal of the product. (e.g. compact fluorescent light bulbs, plastic lumber, integrated pest management).

Details on cost savings of various product groups can be found on the individual product and service pages of this website.

Tool Name: Baynote, Inc. Recommendations

The information below summarizes privacy policy terms related to content recommendations on Mass.Gov and is excerpted from the full Mass.gov privacy policy.

Purpose: Displays relevant content recommendation based on the site usage pattern of all users of Mass.Gov. If Personalization is enabled (the default setting), your personal site usage pattern today and on prior visits to Mass.gov will be displayed to you and will also be a factor in determining personalized relevant recommendations for you.

Data Collected: A random anonymous unique identifier is assigned and tracked for each user of the website. This identifier is sent to our vendor, Baynote, when you view a page, open a document or click a link on Mass.Gov. Our vendor then analyzes the specific content that was viewed and provides content recommendations to similar content that you may find useful. A full description of what data Baynote collects and how it uses this data is available at http://www.baynote.com/baynote-services-privacy-policy/. Please note that the tool uses persistent cookies. These cookies will be Mass.gov domain cookies and not Baynote domain cookies. The cookies will store information related to a user’s Mass.gov Web site usage, including the URL and title of sites recently visited and the random anonymous unique identifier assigned to the user. In general, and as described in more detail in Baynote’s service privacy policy linked to above, Baynote only uses the personalized information it gathers to provide recommendation services and display past usage for Mass.Gov users and will not share this information with any third parties, including advertisers. The information collected will not affect content you may see on sites unaffiliated with Mass.Gov.

Express Opt Out: If personalization of recommendations based on the content you view is not desired, or you do not wish to display a list of recently viewed Mass.gov pages, you may turn personalization off. You can do this by using either the switch located below in this privacy policy or an identical switch located directly above the content recommendations and recently viewed content boxes displayed on the Mass.gov site. Once you turn off personalization, your content recommendations will be based on the overall traffic patterns of all users of Mass.Gov and they will not specifically take into account your own personal usage patterns. If you turn off personalization, information collected by this Tool that is associated with your content usage will be deleted from your cookies, and no further information about your content usage will be sent to our vendor.

Disabling personalization will affect both content recommendations and recently viewed page links. If you turn off personalization, this “off” setting will persist as you browse Mass.Gov and during any future sessions. The opt-out setting is stored in a persistent cookie on your computer. The setting will remain in effect so long as you use the same computer with the same Internet browser. If you delete the cookie that contains the opt-out setting or use a different browser or computer, personalization will be enabled and you will need to disable it again on your next visit, if desired.

For our full privacy policy, please close this window and see the Site Policies or Privacy Policy link in the footer of the page.